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Are You Not Entertained!!!!!

Are You Not Entertained!!!!!

Jul 29

  • News

We already knew with five World motocross championships, 106 Grand Prix wins, 202 moto wins and hundreds of podium finishes that “The Bullet”, Jeffrey Herlings was special. He had given us that day he lapped just about an entire MX2 field in the rough sand of Lierop, his 2017 domination of the AMA champion Eli Tomac at Ironman and his numerous stand out performances over what is now a 15-year career.

His battles with numerous World champions and AMA champions like Ken Roczen, Antonio Cairoli, Eli Tomac, Tim Gajser, Ryan Dungey, Chad Reed, Jorge Prado, Ryan Villopoto and Romain Febvre have left us with hundreds of special memories.

Just like when Russel Crowe, playing the role of Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 epic historical film Gladiator, spoke the words, Are You Not Entertained!!, last Sunday in Lommel, Jeffrey Herlings stood atop that MXGP podium, with the winners trophy in his hand and his two biggest rivals right and left of him (Jorge Prado finished second and Tim Gajser was on the podium as the red plate owner), he too could have yelled to his adoring Dutch followers, who flocked to the podium to celebrate their mans victory, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!! Because the answer would have been a big, YES!!!!! We were all entertained Jeffrey.

Herlings might have come through some rough roads, not only with his huge list of injuries, but also as that petulant young teenager, who swore to the televisions camera’s that he was going looking for Mel Pocock. His passion for winning was evident that day and it was evident in Lommel last weekend.

The five-time World champion has matured, and while many were agitated by his arrogance and self-righteous as that young man, he is now gaining a large list of motocross fans for not only his ridiculous talent, but also for his respectful and friendly nature towards his rivals.

“The Bullet” has handed out compliments to Eli Tomac many times before and more recently to Jett Lawrence and Haiden Deegan, two riders who have placed themselves in the same stratosphere that Herlings has spent most of his career, the most polarised rider in the sport.

We all know that motocross is the toughest sport in the World. What the riders put their bodies through over a season is just ridiculous and mere morals like myself, well, we can just wonder what type of humans these motocross riders are and Herlings has suffered more injuries than probably any other riders in the sports history, another record he probably would rather not have, but he does.

All great riders have lost World titles due to injury, from Cairoli, Gajser, Prado, Everts, Smets, De Coster, Thorpe, and many more. Injuries are a part of the game unfortunately, but all the great champions fight back from that disappointment and rise back to the top, and again pick up World titles.

Everts did it after two years of injury hell, Cairoli did the same after looking down and out in 2015 and 2016, as did Thorpe, Gajser, Smets, Geboers and so many more.

We are so lucky to love this sport, because it is these modern-day gladiators that put themselves on the line every single time they get onto one of these ridiculously fast machines.

So, lets not just celebrate the Herlings victory in Lommel last weekend, but also the performances this year of Tim Gajser and Jorge Prado, because this entertainment isn’t over by a long way and all three of these legendary motocross riders have more up their sleeve for us and I for one, cannot wait.

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